On May 7, Brooklyn College hosted an Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Tea Ceremony that celebrated the pan-Asian and Pacific Islander communities, histories, and cultures. Attendees were treated to a Chinese Lion Dance courtesy of the New York City Chinese Freemasons; a Bangladeshi Dance by the Bangladeshi Students Association; a performance by the Buryat Mongol Folk Music Ensemble; and a Dabke Dance by the Freedom Dabke Group, as well as traditional food and drink. President Michelle J. Anderson; Christopher Y. Won, Program Director, Brooklyn College AANAPISI Project (BCAP); and Sau-fong Au, Director of the Women’s Center at Brooklyn College and the Principal Investigator for the BCAP project. This event was made possible through a grant obtained in 2023 that will help Brooklyn College better serve AAPI students and the community. Two of the co-founders of Brooklyn College’s Asian American Faculty and Staff Association—Associate Professor Yung-Yi Diana Pan and Women’s Center Director Sau-fong Au—are serving as principals for the $1.97 million grant award from the U.S. Department of Education as part of its Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions Program. The grant will allow Brooklyn College to invest in mentoring, mental health, curriculum development, and other initiatives that support students of Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander ancestry. “This $1.97 million grant is the result of the hard work and dedication of faculty and staff who contributed their expertise and firsthand knowledge of curriculum development and the unique needs of our AAPI students,” said Sau-fong Au, director of the Women’s Center at Brooklyn College and the principal investigator for the project. “It will allow us to implement culturally responsive services that cater to the unique needs of our AAPI students, and we are confident that this grant will have a significant and immeasurable impact.” Yung-Yi Diana Pan “Being awarded this grant is a huge win for Brooklyn College. As the population of AANHPI students continues to grow, this grant allows Brooklyn College to better serve them and their academic, social, and emotional needs, ” said Yung-Yi Diana Pan, interim executive director of the Asian American/Asian Research Institute and associate professor of sociology. The grant also led to the launching of the Brooklyn College AANAPISI Project (BCAP) which is being led by new director Christopher Y. Won. “The Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Celebration was a historic event at Brooklyn College, with collaboration from over 10 student organizations, several campus offices, and local artists and performers. Through our BCAP office, we hope to expand upon this tradition, sharing awareness and increasing the visibility of our communities’ unique and shared heritage,” Won said.
